


To Be Alone With You

by Ghanima (Ananais)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Fear of Death, Joe the poet, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Movie: The Old Guard (2020)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26182501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ananais/pseuds/Ghanima
Summary: Joe contemplates a life without Nicky
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 2
Kudos: 94





	To Be Alone With You

After he learns that Booker, a man he thought of as a brother, betrayed them. After they pull Nile’s still healing body out of the car wreckage. After the gut-wrenching knowledge that Andy is now mortal and they patch her up enough that she’s not in danger of bleeding into unconsciousness. After Copley causes a foundational shift in their knowledge that their seemingly one-off missions of mercy had actual far reaching consequences, Joe finds himself sitting on the bed of a nondescript hotel room while Nicky showers in the bathroom. His hands won’t stop shaking.

He joked and smiled with Nicky while they repeatedly took painful samples from them. Even if he would’ve given anything to save his love from unending torture and imprisonment, a part of him was comforted with the knowledge that he could still see Nicky’s face and hear his laugh. Nicky had been his home for centuries and as long as Joe could still draw breath he would never leave his side.

But now with Andy’s blood caked under his fingernails and the knowledge of her mortality spinning in his head, he can't stop thinking of the day when Nicky would draw his last breath. Joe is jolted back to watching that bastard shoot Nicky in the head, begging Nicky to come back to him. That visceral feeling of terror and anguish as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Maybe they were all mortal now and this was it? When Nicky finally drew breath, he locked all those feelings away knowing they had to focus on the mission.

Now in the peace of the hotel room, those thoughts come rushing back mixed in with a much delayed adrenaline crash. When he was still a young man and still in love with words he read books and books of poetry. He was in love with the idea of being in love and spent hours idly contemplating the turn of a phrase, a specific passage. But such dreams faded as he grew older and took more of a role in his family’s business. 

Those words lay dormant in him until years and years later while lying with Nicky who was still Nicolo, trembling and overcome with emotions he never thought he would feel for his enemy. Joe, who was still Yusuf, caught Nicolo’s hand and gently kissed his fingertips. He pulled the words from a deep memory and made them his own, whispering in Nicolo's language: “Even if the Prince of the Faithful should be with me, I would not turn aside from you, my love, for him” Nicolo’s eyes widened as he paused staring at Yusuf long enough to make him think he said the wrong thing. Then Nicolo moved quickly, kissing Yusuf passionately. He haltingly said in Arabic: "Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge” And Yusuf knew with every fiber in his being that they were in this together. They had been inseparable from that moment on.

Losing Andy would tear a hole in him but after centuries it would heal. Still tender to the touch but filled with sweet memories of lifetimes spent together. Losing Nicky would tear him in half. There would be no recovering from that.

Joe feels hands covering his own. He always loved Nicky’s hands, smooth and graceful but capable and deadly. 

“What are you thinking?” Nicky whispers.

Joe slowly raises his eyes from their joined hands until they land on Nicky’s face, taking in every aspect of it as if he would never see it again. Nicky sighs and lifts one hand to cup the back of Joe’s neck. “I’m here,” he says. “I can’t promise I’ll be here forever and neither can you but what time I do have I will never leave your side”

Joe feels his eyes begin to burn with tears and he leans into Nicky’s chest. Nicky holds Joe tightly. Joe finally comes apart in his arms, the only place he can, the only place he feels safe. They might have centuries left or just years but he will make every moment last with this man who has been his to love and care for since he stumbled into this immortality.

**Author's Note:**

> Joe's line is paraphrased from a line of poetry from Ibn Hazm's The Ring of the Dove. I'm using the translation from A.J. Arberry. Nicky's line is from the Book of Ruth in the Bible, also from a more recent translation. Hope you enjoyed!


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